Charles McKinnon Campbell

"CAMPBELL Charles McKinnon Jr., born November 25, 1913, died peacefully with his wife and son at his bedside at Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula Hospital on Sunday, September 2, 2007, at the venerable age of 93. He is survived by his wife Dorothy, brother Jim and his wife Lorraine, son Charles, stepdaughters Jan and Joanna, granddaughter Calla, and many beloved in-laws, nieces, nephews, and cousins. He was predeceased by his first wife Audrey and his sister Mary (Mim). Charlie loved his country and came from a family where civic engagement was second-nature. His father, Charles McKinnon Campbell Sr., was a mining engineer who worked for and eventually ran the mine at Phoenix. B.C., where Charlie and his siblings were born. His father was an early advocate for resource conservation; his mother Lucy was from Vancouver's pioneering and politically active McGeer family. Charlie circumnavigated the globe with his family before he was 16, living in Montreal, Cape Town and O'Okiep, South Africa, and visiting England, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii. He earned an engineering degree at UBC and followed his father into mining, working in mines at Britannia Beach, B.C., Siscoe, Quebec, and Tulsequah, B.C., among many others. From 1959 to 1964, he was mine manager in Bralorne, B.C., where his son Charles John was born. He then became manager for the construction and opening of Western Mines, on Buttle Lake east of Campbell River. He also consistently honoured his father's tradition of unstinting public advocacy both had opinion pieces published in the Vancouver Sun after they were 90. Charlie was an active Liberal. In the 1972 provincial election, he ran in Vancouver Burrard, he served as president of the provincial party, and sat on the UBC senate. In 1974, Charlie became a member of the Immigration Appeal Board, and his displeasure with immigration administration led to a quarter century of persistent advocacy for more consistent and rigorous immigration policy. Charlie lived in West Vancouver for four decades, but Saturna Island was the home he visited for more than 60 years. It represented the values of community and family that he cherished. He met his first wife at Saturna Beach, where Audrey, as a university friend of Lorraine Campbell, came on vacation with her two young daughters. He spent long summers with his wife Dorothy at the cottage he built in 1991 on the Campbell farm atop glorious Brown Ridge. Finally, he moved to the island permanently, on the verge of his 90th birthday. There could be no better place for him to live out a rich life than on Saturna, and he was very grateful for the friendship and care he enjoyed there. A wake will be held in his honour on Saturday, October 13, from 1 to 4 pm, at the old Saturna Community Hall. To relay a message or story to the family, e-mail contactcjc@shaw.ca or dmc@saturnacan.net."